Thursday, May 28, 2009

Cheney torture policy cost thousands of lives

Cheney torture policy cost thousands of lives Cheney torture policy cost thousands of livesDick Cheney says that torturing detainees has saved American lives. That claim is patently false. Cheney's torture policy was directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of American servicemen and women.

Matthew Alexander was the senior military interrogator for the task force that tracked down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq and, at the time, a higher priority target than Osama bin Laden. Mr. Alexander has personally conducted hundreds of interrogations and supervised over a thousand of them.

"Torture does not save lives. Torture costs us lives," Mr. Alexander said in an exclusive interview at Brave New Studios. "And the reason why is that our enemies use it, number one, as a recruiting tool...These same foreign fighters who came to Iraq to fight because of torture and abuse....literally cost us hundreds if not thousands of American lives."

Watch our exclusive interview with Matthew Alexander.

As Ryan Grim at the Huffington Post reported, "Alexander easily takes down Cheney's arguments...The video is at once an effective rebuke of the former vice president and a sign of how the changing media landscape can flatten the field of political debate."

Professional interviews like this one are possible because your support has helped us build Brave New Studios, a state-of-the-art studio at our Culver City offices. Brave New Studios allows us to do the work the mainstream media routinely fails to do: to rebut lies from people like Dick Cheney with the personal testimonies of those like Mr. Alexander who have seen the facts on the ground. We are committed to bringing you more exclusive interviews and need your help. Contribute to Brave New Studios with a $20 donation.

With the mainstream media obsessing over the personal feud between the President and the former Vice President instead of on the critical question of whether torture has led to thousands of American casualties, the work at Brave New Studios and your contribution are more important than ever.